Palestine Conflict: Gandhi 1938

“Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the English or France to the French…What is going on in Palestine today cannot be justified by any moral code of conduct…If they [the Jews] must look to the Palestine of geography as their national home, it is wrong to enter it under the shadow of the British gun. A religious act cannot be performed with the aid of the bayonet or the bomb. They can settle in Palestine only by the goodwill of the Arabs… As it is, they are co-sharers with the British in despoiling a people who have done no wrong to them. I am not defending the Arab excesses. I wish they had chosen the way of non-violence in resisting what they rightly regard as an unacceptable encroachment upon their country. But according to the accepted canons of right and wrong, nothing can be said against the Arab resistance in the face of overwhelming odds.”

Mahatma Gandhi 1938

Then what?

So you say the land is yours.
Then what?
So you put hundreds of thousands to flight.
Then what?
So you take over land.
Then what?
So you round up thousands.
Then what?
So you build a wall.
Then what?
So you bulldoze homes.
Then what?
So you drop bombs.
Then what?
So you invade.
Then what?
So you kill children.
Then what?
So you shell hospitals.
Then what?
So you say you won’t talk to terrorists.
Then what?
So you say the land is yours.
Then what?

by Michael Rosen

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